Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Kind Campaign Founders Want to End Girl-Against-Girl Bullying

Kind Campaign founders Molly Thompson, left, and Lauren Parsekian

We've heard about it from frustrated parents. We've heard about it from curious filmmakers. And now we're getting the lowdown on how to combat the menace of girl-against-girl bullying from a couple of enterprising young women who have founded a nonprofit organization focused on playing nice -- the Kind Campaign.

Molly Thompson and Lauren Parsekian wanted to put an end to the damaging "Mean Girls" mentality -- we've all been there! -- that regularly breaks down girls' self-esteem, so they created both a documentary ("Finding Kind") and a genuine movement.

They've even partnered with Mattel's Monster High, a brand of teenage dolls that are the kids of famous monsters (Draculaura is one!), and got "monster-fied" in a special webisode to spread their message to tweens and teens. It makes for a great match because Monster High is all about being proud of yourself and your unique sensibilities.

Kind Campaign visits Monster High.

The duo also made the rounds to cities including Los Angeles and invited mothers and daughters to share in a screening of "Finding Kind" followed by a frank discussion about bullying.

This is such a worthy endeavor from a pair of thoughtful young women. And while this movement is focused on tween and teen girls, I think it's never too early to start teaching our daughters to be kind.

CC is only 4 years old and finishing up preschool this year, but I've already heard stories about girls excluding girls in her classroom. I don't know what it is or why that happens -- especially in children so young. Luckily, we're very happy with CC's teachers, who refer to all of her classmates as "friends" and work hard to promote sharing and playing together nicely.

After all, as parents, we all want our children to play nicely with others, to build up their friends' self-esteem, and to just be kind. I'm happy to see that girls all over the country have a couple of talented role models in Lauren and Molly.